


Never Been

by Terra



Category: Twilight - Meyer
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:00:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terra/pseuds/Terra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet at the space between both their lands, the wind rushing like bulls and the rain cutting angles cross their faces. Jake shifts his weight constantly, but Edward stands very still.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Been

When he was eleven or twelve, a few years before the war and still more before the Great Influenza, Edward would stand on the dirty Chicago sidewalks and watch the people pass by. There were newsboys in plain brown caps who would call out their headlines to any folk who'd come through, begging for pennies with bold white speech. Edward wondered at them, how anyone could cry so hard at people who weren't listening. But he doesn't remember that any more.

***

They meet at the space between both their lands, the wind rushing like bulls and the rain cutting angles cross their faces. Jake shifts his weight constantly, but Edward stands very still. Neither of them feel the cold.

"She left a few months ago," Edward says. "I decided to let her leave."

"Well _what_, Cullen?" Jake isn't sure what to say. It's like Edward laces his mouth with vinegar, just to make the wounds sparkle. Jake knows he can read his thoughts, see all the textures of red streaking through his mind. He grabs Edward's hand just for a second, then lets it fall.

"You killed her, you know. You _chose_ her."

"Yes," he replies. "I suppose I did." Edward's stoic-- Roman or something. They spend a lot of time there, quiet, wet.

"Did you think I'd be happy? That's not how this works." He puts his lips to a line. "It isn't like that, Cullen. Never been." Jake turns, tears through the rain like paper on a gift. He goes home to his demons, to number all the ways he doesn't give a damn.


End file.
